Bill Gates supports Microsoft's lawsuit against the U.S. government who is trying to force the tech company to share user data stored in Ireland. "There probably are some cases where (the government) should be able to go in covertly and get information about a company's email," Gates said at a Reuters Newsmaker event this week. "But the position Microsoft is taking in this suit is that it should be extraordinary and it shouldn't be a matter of course that there is a gag order automatically put in."

Microsoft is using Europe's new data protection rules to keep the U.S. government out of its Irish email servers. The company said that the US government should rely on inter-governmental agreements rather than a warrant to force the Redmond-based tech giant into sharing user emails that are stored in Ireland.

Hackers using CEO email scams have stolen more than $2.3 billion, according to Trend Micro. The recent scam has been so successful because of its personal nature. The spammers pretend to be a company executive and send emails to accountants to wire funds to supposed vendors. The emails seem like realistic requests which is why the FBI recently issued a warning for companies to beware this scam.

An American company, whose identity has not been disclosed, lost almost $100 million last year after being scammed via email. Hackers posed as one of the company's legitimate vendors with a fraudulent email address and demanded payments. The U.S. government has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan seeking to recover about $25 million derived from the fraud.

The University of Buffalo accidentally emailed acceptance letters to 5,000 applicants. The New York university said that they accidentally created an incorrect email list from the applicant database. The university sent a second email about three to four hours after the initial email went out notifying explaining the mistake and apologizing.

Microsoft's Outlook app is now available for Android Wear smartwatches. The app allows users to read and reply to email messages directly from their smartwatches. The app notifies users when they have new email messages and also allows users to you scroll through all their existing messages.

The State Department have made a deal with the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch to allow the use of sworn depositions from three former Clinton aides about her usage of a private email server while secretary of state. The proposal will allow the investigation to include depositions from former Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin and IT specialist Bryan Pagliano to be conducted as evidence during a two-month discovery period. A federal judge will have to approve the deal.

Microsoft is suing the U.S. government for the right to tell its customers when a federal agency is looking at their emails. “The lawsuit … argues that the government is violating the U.S. Constitution by preventing Microsoft from notifying thousands of customers about government requests for their emails and other documents,” Reuters reports.

Seventy-three percent of marketers rate email marketing as 'excellent' or 'good' when it comes to ROI, according to Econsultancy and Adestra's latest report. This number has increased from 66 percent in 2015. The research also revealed that only 5 percent of marketers think that email has poor ROI.

Sixty-nine percent of companies spend between 1 and 5 hours developing a typical email campaign, according to a recent report from Email on Acid. The research also revealed that 30 percent of marketers plan to spend an additional 20+ hours each month on their email marketing programs. According to the report, 23.5 percent of companies plan to increase email frequency this year.